Olvera Street, bustles with activity pretty much every day. Lately, its centrality and its location in the city’s historic old town have made La Placita, as it’s known, the perfect rallying point for many recent protests for immigrants’ rights.
The events have periodically transformed the place into a boisterous caricature of itself - and April 10th’s gathering was no exception. (more…)
Four words about the guy who picked the spot for April 10’s immigration protest: Give him a raise.
It was just too perfect. Los Angeles’ Olvera Street and the adjacent La Placita look more Mexican than any part of Mexico I’ve had the pleasure of seeing – the architecture, the restaurants, the statues, the shop signs. The apt question was not, ‘Do these protesters deserve to be Americans?’, but rather, ‘Can you believe this place is in America?’
The protest had the atmosphere of a carnival, vertiginous and loud. No one was crying; no one was scared. Giant blue globules of cotton candy floated past like low-flying storm clouds. A helicopter thumped overhead. Rosaries jangled like flecks of sunshine in a sea of lolling flags.
Halfway down Olvera Street I launched into conversation with an avuncular man who stood hocking umbrellas in front of a tiny wishing well. He wore a sombrero, which was also for sale. His eyebrows twitched like fishing lines when he spoke.
“Why the long face?” I asked. “Protests are supposed to be fun, aren’t they?”
“Protest or no, I wish it would rain,” he said, looking skyward. “That way I would sell more umbrellas.”
“What could be more American than that?” I wondered aloud. (more…)
Lyndon LaRouche supporters were there. So were members of America’s Communist party. There was even a group calling itself “The World Can’t Wait: Drive Out the Bush Regime.” At April 10’s immigration rally in downtown Los Angeles – where thousands protested immigration reform legislation currently before Congress – activists from various political groups mixed in with the noisy and spirited crowd. They set up booths, passed out fliers, even waved American flags alongside their mostly Latino counterparts. (more…)
I arrived to yesterday’s immigration rally on Olvera St. in downtown Los Angeles not knowing how or if this would be different than some of the events that have been taking place over the past month.
One thing that struck me while I was at the event was the number of kids involved. As I think back to the march last month I remembered seeing a lot of children there also.
Moments after I arrived I walked past a Korean family. One of the children, a little girl, was holding a (more…)
While many of last night’s Los Angeles-area immigration marches coalesced into one, the San Fernando Valley march stayed separate and strong. I got there just as the march was beginning. The primarily Latino marchers had their banners and signs and the local news channels had their cameras and satellite trucks. I just tried to dive into the middle of it all with my entanglement of camera, microphone, tripod, headphones and extra tape.
In a previous post, one of my fellow journalists remarked about how she felt when she realized she was one of the few black people at the downtown march about a week ago. The sounds of Spanish flew back and forth with little English breaking it up.
This time it was different. (more…)
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Video from Los Angeles, April 10 (1m 47 sec) [1:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup
